The people of the great valley have not been slow, where Nature has
denied them the natural, to make for themselves artificial rivers of
iron. These railroads are more completely adapted to the physical
character of the Western States than would be any other mode of
communication. The work of construction is oftentimes very light,
little more being necessary for a railway across the prairies of the
West (generally) than a couple of ditches twenty or thirty feet apart,
the material taken therefrom being thrown into the intermediate space,
thus forming the surface which supports the crossties, the sills or
sleepers, and the rails. Indeed, the double operation of ditching
and embanking is in some cases performed by a single machine,
(a nondescript affair, in appearance half-way between a
threshing-machine and a hundred-and-twenty-pound field-piece,) drawn
by six, eight, or ten pairs of oxen.

It is even probable that in a great many cases the common road would
cost more than the railway in the great central basin of America; as
the rich alluvial soil, when wet in spring or fall, is almost
impassable, and lack of stone and timber prevents the construction
of artificial roads.

The influence of the railroad upon the Western farm-lands is quickly
seen by the following figures, extracted from a lately published
work on railroad construction.

_Table showing the Effect of Railroad Transport upon the Value of
Grain in the Market of Chicago, Illinois_.

WHEAT CORN